MORE ON THE ROBERT SAVAGE EDWARD VIII PORTRAIT

ABOVE: Prince of Wales 116; BELOW: King Edward VIII 116A
Images courtesy Mark Tomasko

Readers might be interested to know that the Robert Savage portrait of Edward VIII was originally done in 1934 for the first $5 Bank of Canada note. The die proof (see scan) reads "HRH Prince of Wales/Bank of Canada/XV-116." When the $5 note was awarded to British American BN, the portrait was not used. However, when the 1937 series notes were being prepared, $1 models (paste-ups) were made using XV-116. Simultaneously, however, the XV-116 portrait was being redone by Savage, using a darker background, (see pencil notation on XV-116 proof, "background same as King Geo") becoming XV-116A, labeled "King Edward VIII" (see scan). Walter Allan, the great Canadian bank note researcher, published two heavily illustrated articles on the 1935 and 1937 issues of the Bank of Canada in The Canadian Paper Money Journal illustrating four photographs of $1 models using Edward VIII (in the 1994 Journal article on the 1937 Series).

The tintype illustrated in last week's article looks like another photograph of a model similar to Figure 5 (without the tint) of Allan's 1994 CPMJ article. I am puzzled by the term "photographic tintype proof;" it appears to simply be a photograph of a model, of which Allan illustrates four examples in his article. Those are paper photographs, but it's not evident what the significance of a positive tintype is (tintypes are usually reverse images) versus a paper photograph. I know the use of regular (reverse image) tintypes.

In any case, Robert Savage's The Prince of Wales/King Edward the VIII portrait twice came close to being used by the Bank of Canada and twice was not used. The first time, ABN/CBN did not get the order for the $5 denomination in 1934. The second, and final time, the abdication of King Edward VIII in late 1936 made the portrait obsolete. It appears that no master die of a $1 note using the Edward VIII portrait was ever made, and hence no proofs. We can only enjoy the photographs of models of the proposed note.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
UNISSUED EDWARD VIII NOTES HIGHLIGHT REGINA SHOW (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n53a18.html)

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